Bitter cold, the northern winds flew in Obhiyr’s face. He drew himself up and ignored them, looking through the mouth of the Lemdeh. The sun was rising for the first time in nearly a month; washing the grays out of the world around him. The radiant clouds presided over a forested world, where the trees stretched onwards to eternity, with only the occasional granite ridge poking through the growth.

Today he would die. He could feel that. Strength had been deserting him for weeks now, when he had made his pilgrimage to the caves to breath his last with the dead. Soon he would make his way to the world of the dead. But not quite yet.

An attendant asked him quietly if he wanted something to ease his passing. He declined, as usual. The gods would give him what death they willed; whether it was from bite, fall, or starvation, he would accept it. As the light heightened in the sky, he retreated into the cave, thinking of his home in Ditayukl. The children would take good care of it.

In a way, really, he had felt ready to die for a long time. The world of his youth was utterly gone. The Ederru of the south rarely practiced the old arts of whaling or hunting; instead they herded goats like the southerners, or grew imported grain. Even the town where he lived in seemed foreign. So many people living so closely together: nearly a thousand there alone! But change marched on, regardless of if he was ready for it.

There were hints of discontent in their tribe. The Kedoy might be liberal by Ederru standards, but they were still Ederru. The old ways worked; why change them? Some had been set against each other before this: tribes were torn apart by the violence that strangeness cultivates. Perhaps the Kedoy would be able to rise above: they had gotten further than any Ederru tribe before them. Perhaps the light of Irevagg could triumph over the rule of Itnut. But even if the Ederru grew into a proper empire, there would never be a place in them for Obhiyr.

So he rested. So he died.

To the south of Ederru, a land of warm hills and orchards, Hilberia, also saw the birth of a new nation. Highly organized, efficient people, the Gallatenes were the first nation to rise alongside the Ferman, and their meteoric ascent saw the conquering of a large territory (by northern standards, anyway). They had the good sense to reorganize most towns around a central marketplace, with good roads linking their cities, and a powerful military keeping the peace.

While the nation was as yet a minor power in the world, it had already cornered a trade market by raising large herds of sheep for their wool. Light in the cargo holds of ships, it was still valued for its quality and warmth in the nations to the north, and comfort in the lands to the south. Though more recently, trade began to decline with the south due to the wars that were fought there, so far Gallas seemed to be a fully viable state. Expansion to the south meant they came into contact with the larger land of Ferman, but theirs was a peaceful relationship, helped, no doubt, by the Kingdom of Peren that acted as a buffer between them.

Meanwhile, the nation of Ferman has continued its strong surge of expansion. Record harvests certainly improved the trade that it conducts with the south, though certain disruptions of the trade routes (see below) later on in the period slowed or even stopped the process at times. In any case, the conquest of neighboring tribes proceeded relatively smoothly, and contact with the Gallatenes was profitable and cordial. It seemed like Hilberia was in a golden age.

Rutto found itself at the head of a very strong army, made up of a combination of citizen soldiers and mercenaries, with a much greater quality than any of its immediate neighbors. The natural impulse, of course, was to expand, and so they did, shattering states both Lutto and foreign alike. While it certainly did not make them any friends, it laid the basis for a centralized, potent state.

After a short period of dominance, however, the state began to crumble from the inside out. It was simply too large and too unwieldy to remain whole. First the City of Gold seceded, and established the state of Ritti. Thereafter a great deal of the old conquests were lost, and the state shrank back to nearly the same borders it started out with.

Far from these lands, in a valley where the River Sesh flowed lazily through a massive desert, the people of the Empire lived in relative peace. Certainly there were occasional border wars, mostly opportunistic land grabs that had resulted in the crushing of neighboring states, but the people themselves had almost never been touched by this conflict. Instead, the cities rose, with walls thick and high, and temples to the Ancestors towering over them all.

The Emperor had reformed the army, and the government structure was kept clean and efficient. A gradual, slight degree of federalization was introduced, allowing the Seshweay and Arkage to go their separate ways when need came. Though this somewhat decreased the authority of the emperor, increasingly weak rulers after Te’esh the Great were content to let this authority slip away in the political arena. They made up for it with their extravagant military campaigns.

Several minor polities had been turned into allies of the Empire of the Sesh, and were mostly willing to accept their subordinate position, save one. Bahra was an ancient kingdom, and while it had often found itself paying homage to larger nations, it was usually able to play those larger kingdoms off of each other to maintain independence. This new arrangement, with only one larger nation, rendered that notion unavailable. Still, they struggled to gain every inch of autonomy they could.

Finally the Emperor Olyran grew irritated enough that he managed to find a minor pretext for war, passed the declaration through the Senate, and set out on the campaign with a massive army. Several forts fell without a fight before the countless host, a force so large that it ate the fields bare. When finally the army reached Magha, the Bahrans simply abandoned the capital and melted into the desert.

While the King of the Bahrans attempted to harass the enemy into leaving their lands, the hit and run tactics were parried efficiently by Olyran, who after a long, hard campaign, cornered and destroyed the enemy army. Dispatching expeditions to the south to try and find a route through the vast mountain range, he returned home with the bulk of his army to hold victory celebrations.

This was the pattern that future campaigns followed. Most rulers were taken in as client states, which were generously offered seats in the Senate and melded into the framework of the Empire until no one noticed that the King was deposed. A few others hesitated somewhere in this process, and thus their rulers were deposed “for the prosperity of the people”; this is what happened to the formerly powerful state of Jania. And others still were simply bowled over in outright war: Akalm, a state inhabited mostly by relatives to the Craknids themselves but also by Satarai immigrants, was utterly destroyed by an alliance of the Sesh and Neruss.

Thus, the Sesh were unchallenged on any front; by far the most powerful Empire that the world had ever seen. So said the bards, and who was to disbelieve them? The Satarai, it was said, had run to distant plains in the northwest, so great was their fear of the Empire. Any larger nation which dared to oppose the will of Emperor or Senate was ground into ruins. Certainly cracks were there, but most of the time they were fixed well in advance of being a problem.

There were, however, exceptions.

The Empire of the Trilui was one of two nations which could possibly compete with the Sesh; the other being the Hu’ut Empire. However, the Hu’ut were far away and occupied with their own wars. The Trilui, by contrast, were very near, and their heavily fortified western capital of Kargan was an ever-present threat to the peace and security of the Sesh.

At least, that was what the Sesh said. It didn’t really matter; the Emperor Ke’se invested in the navy regardless of justification, and vast forests were poured into the construction of a navy. Cyre fell to the Empire’s forces through clever trickery on the part of the Sesh forces; the logical next step was an overland assault on Kargan itself, with possible support from the sea. For a while, the Sesh waited, not quite confident in their ability to take the powerful citadel while the Trilui were on their guard. However, with the news of an outbreak of war to the far south, the time seemed ripe. The Sesh marched.

Kargan had been reinforced with double walls and seaward bastions as well. While an initial, tentative first assault was launched by the Emperor to probe the defenses, he found them quite impenetrable, and settled down to a very long siege, anchoring his hundred ships in the straits and preventing any traffic to get through. He graciously payed traders token recompense, and encouraged them to unload their wares at Fakr, Arkage, or Seis to be shipped southwards via overland routes. Most of the traders were Trilui nationals, but money was money.

Ke’se himself watched his fleet in the subsequent battle with a Trilui relief force, which plunged into the heart of the Sesh fleet and wrecked havoc. While the majority of the Trilui force was busy far to the south, they could still float seventy five vessels easily, and made do with that. Even lacking in numbers, they had the edge in seamanship, and put the Sesh to flight, capturing many galleys and adding them to their own fleet.

It was a humiliating defeat, and prevented him from besieging the city to any real end. Supplies could still be brought in, and the garrison would never starve. Building several forts and a wall across the peninsula, Ke’se withdrew but for a fairly large garrison, charged with ensuring the city was threatened enough that the Trilui could not launch a major expeditions against his own land. For the Sesh had received word from the far south of their lands.

Serat had invaded.

While the nation of Serat had been an ally in the overthrow of the Satarai, and no real hostility had ever been expressed between the two nations, the southerners coveted the trade route that ran through the city of Xerda. This was enough of a pretext for the King of Serat, who struck lightning fast, and began to build a wall between the Kotthorns and the Parda Hills. Hoping, perhaps, to convince the Sesh a counterattack was not worth it, the city was fortified.

It was not enough. The Sesh had a nearly limitless supply of manpower, and overran the Wall in multiple places; moreover they could attack around the construction, with the lands of Akalm under their banner. The southern forces fell back and back again, but it still was not enough. Not content with the city of Xerda, Ke’se coveted a victory to erase the shame of his defeat at the walls of Kargan.

He pressed onwards, and captured the city of Serat itself. The Kingdom crumbled to pieces, with only a small rump state in Het retaining independence. The Emperor of Sesh, in a gesture of supreme goodwill (and recognizing that he could not hold the lands), gave the vast majority of his conquest to the Hu’ut Emperor, and received a massive payment of silver in return.

The river valley seemed secure, but the war with the Trilui limped on.

For the greater part of the period, the Trilui were in fact at peace with all significant states, only expanding into barbarian territory. It was around this time that they reached a high water mark, taking large tracts of the Eastern peninsula, portions of the northern coast, absorbed the thorn of Sivao, and so on, greatly increasing the size of their territories. Shipbuilding had reached an all-time high, though easy sources of timber were rapidly running out.

The lesser part of the Trilui efforts were focused on the expansion of their city of Kargan, which grew into not only a large port, but also a beautiful one, easily comparable to Trovin itself, with a massive bronze statue of a sailor overlooking its port. Trade was monopolized with the people of the Peko River, though the latter had little to trade, mostly odds and ends from their fields, as well as some precious gemstones. While they were unable to monopolize the output of Neruss, especially due to overtures made to that city-state by the Sesh, they still profited greatly from the salt trade.

However, the greater part of their efforts were focused southwards, into the Nakalani, and maintaining their status as the mightiest power on the seas. The Hamakua and Opulensi had been major nuisances in the past, and now they threatened to become something rather more than a nuisance. The problem had to be dealt with.

The Trilui Emperor Sovau sent a message to Palmyria that it would be on its own if it were to attack Hu’ut, effectively removing his obligations on that front. Sending a large fleet of ships to the besieged port of Kargan and keeping another one stationed off of Trovin to defend against surprise attacks, the majority of the fleet sailed southwards, and pounced on the Hamakua.

Outnumbered and somewhat outsailed, the Hamakua were forced to pull back, losing a large part of their fleet to the seemingly invincible Trilui. The invaders befriended the smaller kingdom of Hanakahi, which had long harbored a resentment of their much more powerful neighbor. With financial support from the Trilui and a large source of manpower themselves, they invaded the Hamakua homeland, besieging the allied city of Kona and at points threatening Waipio itself.

At the same time, Trilui fleets rounded Cape Manakea, and seized the Hamakuan islands there, shattering the longstanding trade route with the Galas Sea. Trehan ships led an attack on the Chimoai Isles, taking them from both the Opulensi and the Hamakuans. The series of reverses was unprecedented, and it seemed as if the Trilui were invulnerable.

A simultaneous move by the Hu’ut provoked the Palmyrians into attacking them, and the larger empire simply rolled over the smaller one in a mockery of their earlier conflict. With the blessing of the Trilui Emperor, fifty thousand troops descended through the mountain passes to open a second front against the Hamakuans. Things looked rather bleak.

However, a famine in the main regions of the Trilui soon forced them to concentrate efforts on protecting grain shipments from the Hu’ut. The Hu’ut, for their part, had their soldiers bog down in the passes through the Kotthorns. While they were suitably distracted, the Hamakuan king Manoa the Great inflicted a serious reverse on the Hanakahi forces, and in a brilliant campaign shattered the invaders, driving them back to their own city and putting it under siege. Ships captured the offshore isles in surprisingly successful raids.

The Farou, seeing their old adversaries the Hu’ut occupied with the war against Hamakua, and furthermore forced to guard their borders with the Sesh Empire, joined the conflict. A swift invasion of the Hu’ut occupied Subal retook the city without much of a fight, and even drove to Hiuttubupulosolamanos itself, though they were driven back before any serious siege could be prepared. There was a strong call for war with the Trilui for aiding the Hu’ut, but this movement died in its infancy with a veto by the king. The Trilui, for all their faults, were free peoples; the Hu’ut were not.

Finally, the Opulensi, seeing the occupation of their old enemies, launched a campaign against the Trehan city of Pisos. While nothing came of it, it prevented a Trehan attack on Epichirisi itself, and proved the usefulness of Stad Men mercenaries, who were hired for the fight.

It was, of course, too good to last. The Hu’ut finally managed to mobilize their entire manpower to fight in the war: nearly two hundred thousand, all in all. Defeating the Farou in three battles through superior numbers, they forced the free peoples to pay tribute for ten years in order to secure the peace. Then turning on the Hamakua, they forced them to settle before their nearly inevitable doom as well.

In the end, then, the Trilui had gained half of the Chimoai Isles (with their ally gaining the other half), and secured a valuable alliance with the Hu’ut for future times. However, they had failed in their objective of knocking the Hamakua out of the picture, and hadn’t even begun their goal to crush the Epichirisi.

Still, it allowed them to finish their war with the Empire of the Sesh, where no lands exchanged hands, and they still had dominance over the greater part of trade in the known world.

Though close to the conflicts of this world, the Zyeshu remained apart from it all. A peaceful culture of wanderers, who moved from place to place, they were a curious people. Those who travel are considered “priests”, though their religion is not a particularly defined or taken seriously. Indeed, it is almost idyllic here, with few troubles apart from local squabbles. There is always the danger of overzealous Hamakuan monarchs, but as yet no assault has been made.

Thearak’s King Jirrus presided over a realm that had a somewhat justified pride. It had grown past its origins, and was now one of the moderate powers in this world: not on the scale of Hu’ut or the Trilui, but certainly able to deal with any of its neighbors. However, he had a rather more ambitious goal in mind, and led a colossal attack on the Duroc nation. Once again the battle lines were drawn; once again the Uggor came to their friend’s aid.

This time it was different. The Thearaki had gotten elephants of their own. While the first deal with the Uggor had fallen through (the westerners gave them aged, decrepit creatures), other Uggor tribes were less scrupulous. The Liealb people, however, could not match the dedication between mahout and elephant that was formed by the Uggor, and certainly lacked the howdahs or even the hideously expensive armor that plated a few of the more elite elephants on the other side.

For their part, the Duroc had formed a rather secretive group called the Order of the One, which managed to raise an army of highly disciplined foot soldiers. Combined with chariots, the Duroc army could match that of Thearak, one man for every two of theirs. Unfortunately, Thearak had three.

The battle of the Granto Woods was a fiercely fought affair, with heavy casualties on both sides. Proving themselves most effective, the Uggor were able to utterly wipe out the elephant corps of Thearak, while their Duroc allies cut a swathe through the center of the enemy army. It was not enough; the Liealb forces pressed onwards, and eventually the Uggor commander ordered a fighting withdrawal.

Thearak had seized the crucial city of Hala, but the Duroc position around Asandar had been reinforced several times over. Regretfully, he signed his peace, took his city, and let the Allies be.

Krato had progressed considerably in recent years, with the expansion of farming along the river, and with it the growth of various cities. While the Irallian religion spread from Thearak during years of peace, trade was otherwise minimized with their rivals. Instead, it was routed through the Galas Sea, though with troubles in the east, it was an uncertain and risky prospect at best. Another route had been discovered through the mountains past Moti, connecting to the Sesh, which greatly eased communications.

Iralliam was only the second international religion in the known world; it formed from the teachings of the prophet Kleo in the Kotthorn Mountains. Colored by customs of all the nearby lands, he told men of a golden afterlife known as Irallia, which could be reached by following the great path. All men who wandered this path were battled over by the two gods: Oporria and Istria, who led men, and led them astray, respectively. Gaining widespread popularity after its adoption by the Queen Piathia in Thearak, it quickly spread to the Duroc and Uggor, and even somewhat to the north in Serat.

When the prophet Kleo died, his bones were interred under the temple at Opios, which rapidly became a site of pilgrimage. With this, the recent gains against the Duroc, and the annexation of the southeast, Thearak was truly a power to be reckoned with, perhaps on the level of Hu’ut itself.

Political Map

* * * * * * * * *

The two great trends in history are civilization’s rise, and its fall. Nations have oft contributed to their own destruction without realizing it until it was too late.

So we must turn to the Sesh. Ever a river that has seen blood and death, it is home to the all too unfortunate Seshweay and Arkage, rivals who have come close to utterly destroying each other in the past, and may well again in the future. For a long time, it looked as though their differences were put aside, as if the united monarchy could stand together...

It began without much fanfare. The drought merely seemed like another in the long list of weather oddities that plague this land. But it was not; it stretched on for decades. Paradoxically, flooding became a major problem, devastating settlements on the river banks, and washing away the formerly thick soils of the river valley. Arroyos and wadis abounded, and suddenly famine set in.

In many cases, such a situation could be dealt with, and indeed the monarchy did its best to deal with it. But things rapidly got out of hand. The federal system, while good for keeping peace, had thoroughly segregated Arkage from Seshweay. The two peoples even lived intermingled, but under different laws. This situation was a tinderbox; the famine was the flame. Internecine strife tore at the heartland of the Sesh, with citizens of the world’s greatest empire slaughtering each other for a loaf of bread.

It was only a matter of time before its neighbors began to notice, and soon tribes (termed the Hafnids by the scholars of the time, though no one really cared) poured into the Sesh Valley, looking for plunder, and perhaps for a new place of settlement. Ruined as the valley had become, it was still a step above the desert.

At the same time, a faraway event that would seem to have little bearing on their struggles brought down the Empire at a stroke. The Satarai, long their enemies, had fled, and it was assumed would harm them no more. Yet there was no luck to be had: the horsemen struck the crown of Berdz, razing the isolated mountain country to the ground, and with it the precious tin mines. Combined with the failure of mines in Palmyria, tin was suddenly extraordinarily scarce; the only major source was in the lands of the Moti, nearly inaccessible and certainly expensive.

Without tin, bronze could not be made, and without bronze, there was no metal. Knives, hoes, scythes, spears, rivets – none could be fashioned. Bronze was a treasured possession, and Empires cannot be maintained by a blade of stone.

The Empire of the Sesh collapsed. Its cities lay in ruins, its heartland was devastated. Nor could it be easily rebuilt: marauding tribes raided villages still, and most of the people were dead or had fled. There was no base to build a state on.

Yet there were sparks in the darkness still. The ever resilient Bahrans managed to resurface, of course, freed from their domination by the Empire. More interestingly, a small rump state grew around Tisesh and Nikros, a primarily Seshweay conglomeration that resisted the barbarian invasions. Larger still was the resurfacing state of Jania. Though its eponymous city had been sacked by the invaders, a more defensible Banh was made into the new capital, and military expeditions had even begun to penetrate into the Delta by the end of the period.

The collapse expanded. Trade links had been close with numerous states, most notably the Neruss and the Hu’ut. While the Hu’ut were large enough to absorb the blow, the Neruss found their economy in a downwards spiral, and were forced to revert almost entirely to sea trade in order to keep themselves alive. Problems in the Lovi Sea, however, made even that an uncertain prospect (see below).

The Hu’ut would not collapse due to the fall of the Sesh, to be sure. But they were vulnerable to the same effects: drought and flooding, which took a heavy toll, especially on the upper Had River. Alone, of course, they could have weathered this, but the invasion of Hafnid barbarians from the Sesh Valley meant the cities of Serat and Minar fell in rapid succession; the trade route to the south, of course, was lost with it. This, combined with the aforementioned failure of the Palmyrian mines and the destruction of Berdz, led to an utter failure of the entire bronze-based economy.

The Lovi Sea, too, fell prey to numerous problems. Chief among them was the threat of pirates from the northern coast, who indeed wrested away one of the major islands in the Sea from the Trilui; this, combined with normal piracy, meant the old order was beginning to break down. Merchants, wary of what might be brought down upon their holds, often refused to sail entirely, which struck a dagger into the heart of the Trilui economy.

Not that their rivals were any better off. The Epichirisi, too, felt the effects of famine and economic collapse. Of course, their smaller realm was better able to react, and they managed to switch to fishing to tide them over famines from good year to good year.

The Hamakua, alas, were less fortunate: harvests were failing rapidly as fields eroded, while their main trading item, the famous lumber of their shores, had all bur vanished. Their larger population meant that the fallback option of fishing would not be enough; it would invariably lead to many deaths. Moreover, the dominance of the Hamakuan state had raised the ire of its neighbors, who allied to deal a serious defeat: the Hanakahi are now in rebellion. Worse still, barbarians from the north poured over the Kotthorns, and the center of the nation fell into chaos, with the city of Waipio itself sacked.

The Palmyrians found some comfort in the utter destruction: they were able to free themselves from the Hu’ut yoke and reestablish an independent nation.

Stad Men, for its part, found itself increasingly pressed by barbarian tribes around it, while famine, too, was striking it hard. Their brothers in Baharr were faring even worse: the farmers on the isle of Dinyart were discontented with tithes, and threw the fishermen out in a bloody civil war; the independent Kingdom of Dinyart now stands firmly aligned against the scattered remnants of Baharr.

Thearak found itself severely challenged by the sudden drought; it was unable to hold onto the south, which declared independence as the Kingdom of Piatrata. Worse still, the great pass in the north had not brought merchants’ wagons, but death in the form of a barbarian invasion and, increasingly, plague. The upper half of the nation was rapidly falling into darkness.

The Uggor were able to weather the storm fairly well, due to their diverse lands, but even they have noticed shifts in the world.

The northern states were all impacted by the strangeness of the seasons, of course. The Rutto, particularly, were hard hit by declining harvests, and they noticed a massive migration southwards of the Prokym tribes, though as yet they were able to fend off attacks on the most important areas. Gallas and Ferman were mostly self-sufficient in terms of food, but they found their trade utterly torn to pieces, along with any sources of income. The Kedoy tribe, for its part, finds itself precariously balanced, as the granaries empty and this first experiment with cities may well be the last as well.

Even the Satarai, distant and fierce as they are, have noticed the summer grasses failing, and the horses are weakening. As they explore their new steppe, this certainly has not been a welcome development, and many are calling the chiefs to do something – anything, as if they really could.

Alone of all nations, the Hu’ut and Trilui were fortunate: they could import iron-working from their neighbors the Farou, and indeed, already had been. Necessity had not been this invention’s mother; iron was merely a smith’s tinkering. But it was this invention’s catalyst.

The Iron Age had exploded into being, but this new flame warmed only civilization’s shards...

Political Map

Economic Map

* * * * * * * * *

OOC:

Red outlines on the political map for a city indicate that it is a religious center.

The city map will have to come tomorrow, given the fact that I’m lacking quite a few city names. Feel free to name them yourselves (unless you’ve already provided names specifically given for cities).

I apologize especially for the delay, and also for some dips in quality here and there in the update.

Sorry. I just hope you remember how much drawing out updates sucks for everyone involved.

__________________"Hier liegt ein Fürst, der trotz des besten Willens keinen seiner Pläne durchsetzen konnte."
"Her Majesty has terrible dreams. She sees England as a small country that lives in peace, and no one at the court dares tell her that Rome started out the same way. His Catholic Majesty was once content with ruling half the world; I am afraid we will have to take all of it." - Humphrey Gilbert
"I am not at all a friend of humanity, Viscount replied. I am the enemy of its enemies." - S. Vititsky, "The Search for Designation, or the Twenty Seventh Theorem of Ethics".
天命

Neverwonagame2: Obviously it didn’t save him, but Jania fared much better than it might have (note the utter lack of problems in its integration with Akalm).
Flyingchicken: Considerable territorial growth.
Ninja Dude: Did you notice that one nation managed to essentially escape any and all problems?
Kal’thzar: Explosive religious growth.
Cuivienen: Quite a rapid rise for a new nation.
conehead236: The Trilui were able to maintain quite a good position, despite challenges on all fronts.
Thlayli: Maintained a cohesive tribe despite being in the middle of a difficult migration.

I assume you wish to switch to shorter turns, so that we can focus a little on this... delicious destruction. Therefore, I need to change the format of stats a little; it will take maybe a day or two for me to produce those. Thank you for your patience.

Though your efforts to extrapolate the 'hero worship' conversation from While We Wait to here are admirable, you are mistaken. I don't exactly worship NK, but I do respect his modding ability, a lot. (You don't exactly worship a guy who you've co-modded with, you know.)

EDIT: NK, how much of the Sesh military tradition has survived? Obviously I am most interested in it's survival in Jania, but I'm curious about elsewhere. Also, it's perfectly understandable Grang did not get a mention in the update

The Myth of the New Craknids
By this period, the title Craknid was held in pride but the statistical diffrence in terms of real achievement was insignificant. So, more importantly for their reputation, was the difference in statistical achievement. It was a very rare thing, though.

Hanid (in Jania, the suffix -id was multiplying like rabbits), or Hanid the Great Craknid as he would later have himself be called, was a peasant who had a genuinely extraordinary ability to recognise talent, combined with great ambition. Coincidentally, although he did not know it, he was actually a tenth Satari. But this would not be relevant to his tale.

Hanid, who desired power for the sake of glory, made a deal with Pa, a merchant outcast from Seshweay). Pa desired power and was willing to work hard, but had little charisma and a foriegn background. Hanid recognised in him great skills at articulate writing, and it was this Pa who created the myth of the Craknids.

The Arkage sucession system, by which the King chose the candidate for the throne and bought off the greatest threat to it, was still in place (though there was now a long tradition of there always being a Popular Canidate, who claimed, usually correctly, to be the favourite of the people.). The primary canidates were Larid (a military man whose achievements were comparatively notable for his day) and Xungid (a foriegner who had added -id to the end of his name, but a geuninely good administrator who had a lot of blackmail on the King). The two clashed over the title of the Popular Canidate.

Hanid and Pa (changed to Panid in an attempt to look Arkage) saw an opportunity. Hanid was no orator, but he didn't need to be. He could simply pay masses of people to demonstrate day and night in his favor.

The logistics of such a scheme would be difficult, especially without a source of money. Holphnid, the young son of a beggar, was recruited for this task. Strapped for the time his cautious nature desired, he decided to use false rumours to artifically inflate and deflate the price of various items. As things slowly settled down, Holphnid had gotten them rich...

Now the "Popular Canidate", and apparently by a wide margin, Hanid decided to try and establish military and economic credentials. Like his claim to be the Popular Canidate, this was a complete fraud. To achieve his goals, he would need to find people with real military and economic credentials.

Panid, a more cunning man then Hanid, decided that Hanid should challenge Larid to a game of Grang. Panid percieved that skill at Grang was not the same as millitary skill, but such a major threat to Larid's credentials would hopefully take him out of the race. Using a mix of coaching and the advice of the master Grang player Ugid, Hanid managed to easily defeat Larid. Historians debate whether it was the politically wise course, but Larid dropped out and joined the Hanid "ticket".

Despite this, the King still selected Xungid (though Xungid promised Hanid the inheritance) thanks to Xungid's blackmail (the King secretly worshipped what were known to be Satari gods). Hanid wanted to back out, but Panid would not allow it.

To deal with his problem, he put a small dose of posion in Hanid's drink. He then persuaded Hanid that Xungid wanted him assasinated, and had Hanid, on this pretext, call on his hired men to march upon the palace (most of them had merely burning torches or even burning sticks for weapons, though) and proclaim that Xungid would be killed, by whatever means necessary.

The King gave in, deciding to let Xungid die there and be more careful with his secret in future. Hanid, fresh from victory, claimed to be of the blood of Craknus. Promising a new age, he romanticised Arkage and Sesh (pretending the Sesh were more Arkage then Seshweay and presenting it as a final Arkage victory) and said he would create an empire as great as the Sesh before it.

The people, paid in advance, cheered. It was the beggining of a new age- the age of the Craknid Myth.